The Student Nerds Blog

Skype for the iPhone was released today and a lot of people on the internet are making a big deal out of it.  I downloaded it myself to see what the hype was all about.  The program itself is designed very well, intuitive and you can do almost everything you can on the normal desktop version of Skype.  Will it be enough to make AT&T sweat? I’ve been trying to think of the ways that this program can hurt AT&T and the biggest concern I can see is the international calling.  The international calling plans on Skype are incredible and if you do a lot of overseas calling, this might be huge for you.  As of now, you can’t use the program over the 3G network; you have to be on a Wi-Fi network.  For some, that’s not a big deal as they might be constantly surrounded by a Wi-Fi signal.  For others, it could be a problem.  The other issues I see with the service is that the iPhone can’t handle the Push Notifications yet.  While it is c...

There is a nasty little virus that has been attacking computers for quite some time and is set to be released on April 1st.  The risk of catching this virus is very high.  No one is really sure exactly what is going to happen but they do know that this virus is going to do some serious damage when it attacks.  Right now Microsoft has $250,000 bounty for anyone who rats the owner of this virus out and there have been no leads as of this point.  What you can do to protect your system is make sure you have all your virus software (Norton, Symantec, AVG etc) is up to date with virus definitions, and also make sure if you have a computer running Windows you have all your automatic updates downloaded and installed. If you are not sure that your computer is up to date, go to your start menu, then control panel, then automatic updates do a check to make sure you are.  I am not 100% sure that this is strictly limited to Windows but I do know if you have a Mac you...

Here our the best links of the week.  Check ‘em and let us know what you think.11 Gummi Shot Glasses How To Easily Compress Video For Web With Movie Maker Monster "HDMI Difference" scam still kickin' in Fry's Electronics Twitter Implicated in Break Up Between Aniston and Mayer Academic Earth - Video lectures from the world's top scholars 101 Undiscovered Freebies: The List - PC World New Microsoft Ads Point Out, Cough, High Cost Of Macs Shut Up, Twitter: Everyone's Real Fake on Twitter First Look at Tesla's Stunning Model S

A lot of companies are trying to grow their following on Twitter and I think it has the potential to be a great marketing tool.  It’s also a great discussion tool with your followers.  Hopefully some day it won’t be as hard to get followers.  With that said there is a wonderful small site called Twibs and what they have created is a search for Twitter users that are companies bring them into one spot.  Its amazing but they found us and added us as a company to their list.  Our next goal is to show up frequently on their site.  They are offering a way to get on the main page and its through a voting process.  We need our readers and Twitter followers help to get us on the main page of Twib.  If you enjoy reading our blog, or are excited for when we actually offer some services let us know by voting here . We need everyone’s help!! ReTweet if you want to help us even further! http://twitter.com/studentnerds

I’ve written a previous blog post about remote assistance.  You can read about it here if you want, but I’m going to talk about an alternative today.  I was previously using Ammyy Admin to help family and friends with their computer problems.  About a week ago, I tried using it but was told that I needed to purchase a license.  Purchase a license? Ha!  There had to be a free alternative and I found one; ShowMyPC . ShowMyPc is a free program (really free too, you’ll never need a license) that allows you to share your PC with a friend to have them use the computer with you.  It does not work on Macs and if anybody has a solution for you Mac people, please let me know. To start using the program, go to showmypc.com and click “Show My PC to Remote User.” If you’re helping someone, click the link below it (It’s actually the same file, but I think they are just trying to simplify things).  Once you have the file downloaded, double click it and c...

Keeping a computer up to date to handle the latest and greatest video games is a very expensive process.  It involves having the newest motherboards, processors, video cards and sound cards.  This easily costs hundreds of dollars if not over a thousand.  What if you didn’t have to worry about doing any of that.  What if you could play these games on your old crappy computer and not have to spend all your hard earned cash keeping up with the latest hardware? Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? OnLive is a company that claims they can deliver on this concept.  What they do is run all of the games on their servers and send the video to your computer.  This means you could potentially play the newest PC games on your old eMachine’s computer or even an underpowered netbook.  It’s a fairly exciting idea that is currently being beta tested.  They have even designed a small box to hook up to your TV that allows you to play these PC games easil...

We have talked about reformatting your computer before and why it can benefit your experience on your computer.  It makes the computer run faster and gets rid of all of the crap that you may have accumulated over the years.  Most people dread the process of formatting, but it doesn’t bother me at all.  I’ve got the process down to a system and now I don’t stress about it when I need to do.  Let me explain what I do. There are a few programs that help me with keeping track of all the little pieces of a reformat.  Here’s what I use: Dropbox – I’ve talked about Dropbox before and it really does save a lot of time.  It keeps files synced between computers and also stores those files online for free (up to 2gb).  I use this to store settings and also a list of the programs currently installed on my computer.  I have substituted Dropbox for the My Documents folder which makes it one less thing I need to backup. SyncBack – I’ve talked ab...

It’s Friday once again and we have the our favorite links of the week.  This also happens to be our 100th post on this blog and I can’t believe that we got here so fast.  I had really wanted to use our 100th post to announce the new features of our website, but unfortunately we’ve had a few setbacks.  I guess that’s the case with any startup.  We are still working hard to get our new features launched and it should be very exciting when we do so.  Here are the links: President Obama - Full Interview The Media Mecca The Five-Minute Prison Workout Keeps You Fit in Any Space Hulu's Latest Commercial Stars Family Guy Creator Seth McFarlane Hey Jude (Sung by a Korean Baby) Start BitTorrent downloads remotely with Dropbox The Fastest, Safest Way to take Taxis! Facebook Poll: 94% Of Users Don’t Like Redesign Do It Yourself: How To Set Up An Auction Using Craigslist and Google Docs The Financ...

Google has finally done something with Grand Central (The company it bought over a year ago).  Grand Central’s core feature was the ability to have one phone number that would ring all of the phone numbers you currently have.  It was great for someone who had an office phone and would travel a lot.  Google has just recently announced Google Voice and it has upgraded the features that Grand Central had. Some of the features that Google Voice has includes: Call Screening Phone Routing Forwarding Voicemail Transcription Personalized Grettings Conference Calls Record your phone calls Create Groups And many more For a great walkthrough on the service, check out Lifehacker’s post here .  Now we just need Google to open the service to everybody so we all can use it.  Come on Google!

*This Post is by Arjun Sharma My internet isn't working on my desktop, so I’m forced to type from my laptop.  Arguably, my laptop is more powerful than the desktop.  That’s only natural: I built my desktop in the summer of 2002 and my laptop was purchased (by my sister) about 1.5 years ago. When I went to college some 7 years ago, the big question was laptop vs. desktop.  That is no longer a valid question.  Today, the laptop reins supreme.  The advent of wifi means there is almost no reason for the clunky old desktop. Yet, in this post-collegiate setting, I have both a laptop and a desktop.  And invariably, I will use my desktop over my laptop.  The arguments remain the same: Bigger workspace – my laptop desktop maxes out at 1200x800.  As old as this desktop is, with my 18”monitor I’m still riding happily with 1280x1024 Mouse control is a zillion times better.  My left thumb keeps hitting the fucking touchpad and send...

If you are like me you look forward to this weekend more than any other in college basketball.  This weekend is arguably the most intense weekend for any sport.  You get to see more upsets, Diaper Dandy’s, PTPers, and Cinderellas than you do all year long.   The reason is because you have the largest stage, with teams that got no coverage throughout the year because they weren’t in the top 25 but have a solid team and pulled a victory out in the end of the year conference tournament and earned a bid to the big stage.  This year I am hoping to partake in a “Player Draft” where each person drafts good scoring players and then you track their scoring throughout the tournament. You then total up your team’s points and compare it to everyone else you are playing against.  It makes the tournament much more fun because you want to cheer for not only the teams you like, but the teams with your player on them.  Even if you aren’t playing in a player draft yo...

I had the original iPhone and I loved it.  I currently have the iPhone 3G and I love it (AT&T’s service is another story though).  It is one of greatest devices I have ever used and does many things wonderfully.  But Apple, we have a problem.  You let some of the simple things slip by you and you need to address them.  I’m hoping you can do this tomorrow during your press event and put the final nail in the coffin for other smart phone manufacturers.  Kevin Rose (pictured) has some rumors of what Apple is going to say and I’m he’s wrong (partly). Rose says that the new iPhone software will have copy and paste but it will not have background tasks.  If the iPhone wants to compete with the new slew of smart phones coming out (Android and the Palm Pre come to mind), it needs to have background apps.  Location aware applications have the potential to be huge and they will need the ability to run in the background.  Instant messaging prog...

It’s Friday again and here is some of the best stuff we found this week. Stewart vs Cramer: The Complete Ass-Kickingo Any Computer Happy 20th Birthday, World Wide Web Put Google Calendar and Notes on Your iPhone Wallpaper RerunCheck Are you doomed to a rerun tonight? Big Music Will Surrender, But Not Until At Least 2011 SNL Digital Short: Lazy Sunday Share Your Business Card via SMS Study: Weather Change Can Trigger Throbbing Headaches 5 Easy Ways to Earn Mad Money Headaches

Having an organized music collection has many benefits.  It allows me to make better playlists, take advantage of iTunes’ Genius features, and find any song very quickly.  This was not an easy thing to do and it does require a great deal of patience.  It took me about 3 months to finish organizing my music collection.  This includes making sure every song is named correctly, has embedded album artwork and has a genre if available.  Here’s how I did it. The first thing I did was made a backup copy of my music.  I did this just in case I messed something up and couldn’t go back. I highly recommend doing this if you have the space.  Once you have the backup, you’ll want to go get Mp3Tag .  This is a free program that I used to “tag” my music (this is a Windows only program. If anybody knows a Mac equivalent, please mention it in the comments).  The reason it is called “tagging” is because every MP3 file has an ID3 tag.  This ID3 tag...

While we are in the process of compiling the list of products that we are going to recommend, we are still trying to help everyone find a good deal.  I had a friend, Steve, who came over to “borrow” some of the movies we have and he brought a 4 gig thumb drive and I just laughed because he will only be able to get maybe 3 movies on it.  Here is a product that he should have purchased or should purchase if he truly wants to make the trip worth his while.  Although we did have a mean match of Goldeneye Source when he was over. $28.99 Kingston DataTraveler 16 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive DT100/16GB This is a good quality maker of Flash drives and it has 16GB’s of space which means that it has the same amount of space that the iPod touch’s have. It is capable of holding around 14 full length movies or thousands of songs.  The nice thing about this device is there is no installation needed at all; just plug in and it shows up as a hard drive on the com...

If you have been looking for new music I will make it easy on you and filter through some of the crap out there.  Below are some full CD’s and also some single songs that are worth downloading or going out and actually buying the CD!! Yes, you heard that correctly.  I said “buy” music. The Fray – The Fray (Full Album) Coconut Records – West Coast & Nighttiming Ben Folds – You Don’t Know Me , Kylie from Connecticut , & Cologne MGMT - Oracular Spectacular (Full Album) Matt & Kim – Daylight Weezer – The Greatest Man That Ever Lived Keane – Spiraling Rivers Cuomo- I was Scared Glasvegas – Geraldine Chairlift – Bruises Carolina Liar – Coming to Terms (Full Album) Franz Ferdinand – Tonight (Full Album) 3oh!3 - Don't Trust Me Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend (Full Album) That about rounds out the list for good music.  If you are interested in listening to the songs before you purchase you can hear them...

I love Firefox and recommend the web browser to anyone I can.  Not only is the browser more secure than Internet Explorer, it has a wonderful selection of add-ons that make the browser even better.  I'm going to share the add-ons that I use that make my browsing experience that much better. I try to keep my Firefox installation lean and mean, but sometimes I just have to have some new features.  Here are the Firefox add-ons that I use: Picnik – Adds a menu when you right-click on images so that you can edit those images online at Picnik.com. Save Image in Folder – Adds a menu when you right-click on images so that you can save images to custom folders that you set up.  It comes in handy when I save wallpapers I find and want to put them in the right folder. Foxmarks – I’ve talked about Foxmarks before and it allows you to sync your bookmarks between multiple computers and backs them up online. Ubiquity – This is an interesting add-on that...

Here are the best links that we found this week.  Enjoy! Watchmaker Ulysse Nardin Creates Smartphone Juiced Up by Kinetic Energy Watchmen MMO coming out for the iPhone Our Favorite Lifehacker Posts of the Week 1.2-Mile Vodka Pipeline Built Between Russia and Estonia 15 Simple Changes That Will Quickly Improve Your Health How To Keep Your Credit Cards Safe When Shopping Online No Doubt: Buy A Concert Ticket, Download All OurSongs Amazon gives gamers another option for used game trade-ins Uh, We Almost Got Asteroided Yesterday

Facebook is going to be changing the homepage that you see after you log in.  On March 11, they will be making it more like a live stream.  You can already get a preview of this by clicking on Live Feed.  They will make this the default and it seems to me that they are doing this to compete more with Twitter . Here is a preview of the new look: Facebook is also redoing the pages that celebrities and companies use.  You can check out the new look by clicking here .  It is the new Student Nerds page. *Note, you must be logged into Facebook for it to work. I actually like what they’re doing a lot.  It should be much easier for companies to share information with their fans and customers.

Amazon has just released an iPhone app for reading eBooks on your phone.  On the heels of annoucning their brand new Kindle 2, this should only further cement Amazon as the leader in digital book delivery.  There are a few problems with the application but it is understandable.  With Apples terms of service for iPhone applications, you cannot sell third party stuff through an application.  It’s smart on Apple’s part, but it requires you to purchase Amazon’s eBooks on their website and then go to your iPhone to read it (you could do it all on the iPhone with Safari, but that can be a pain sometimes). On the other hand, Amazon has a great feature that lets you sync where you are in a book between multiple devices.  Say you start reading a book on your Kindle.  You can go on a trip with only your iPhone and pick up where you left off.  They call this feature “Whispersync” and it could come in handy for you Kindle owners.  I personally...

When I read the news, blogs, or watch TV.  I am constantly surrounded by Twitter.  Yet only about 10-15 of my friends are actually on it. I think that is partly because people don't understand what it is for or why they would want to use it, or even how to use it. I am going to give you an example of how I use Twitter and how you could or should use it.  Twitter is a micro blogging website with an API that allows programmers to create software that works in conjunction with their website. That is how you can have an application on your iPhone, or you Blackberry, or Google Phone. This allows you to participate in the micro blogging daily.  Let me explain exactly what I mean by micro blogging.  You have 140 characters to say something about what you are doing, or what you are thinking.  For example: goochdotcom I'm always afraid of what I'll find in my hotel room- and I blame CSI for that about 2 hours ago from TwitterBerry This is one of my friend...

If you need to get a cheap computer for any reason, I have come up with a list of parts that should provide a nice cheap computer.  This thing won’t be a super fast machine, but it will definitely handle your everyday tasks.  It is also a very simple machine to put together and could be a great starter machine for any wannabe computer builder. Here are the parts for the computer: MSI Wind Black Barebone - $139.99 Seagate Barracuda 250gb Hard Drive – $49.99 LG 22X DVD Burner - $24.99 Kingston 2gb Laptop Memory - $23.49 Total price comes to $238.46 before shipping.  The MSI barebone box comes with a built in processor.  It’s not the fastest thing in the world, but this machine would be great for Ubuntu or Windows XP.  It would be great for browsing the internet, listening to music and writing documents.  If you need help building a computer, here is a great guide for the absolute beginner.